Oregon's Economy

[Okstate]

^ It'll be a nice addition for residents/visitors boating out that way though on the river.

[downtownpdx]

Capstone Partners building major distribution center, an economic bellwether

Elliot Njus | enjus@oregonian.com The Oregonian
on September 26, 2013 at 6:15 PM, updated September 26, 2013 at 6:50 PM

http://www.oregonlive.com/front-porc...l#incart_river

As the economy improves, an increasing number of companies are ready to spread out a bit -- into more space, or into new geographic markets.

A Portland development firm is starting construction on a project that will give those companies some breathing room.

Portland-based Capstone Partners, with joint venture partner PCCP, is preparing to build nearly 500,000 square feet of warehouse and distribution space near the Portland International Airport. The project, called the PDX Logistics Center, would be the first industrial center of its size to be built without a signed lease since the Great Recession hit. ...

... An even better sign is that the real estate brokers in charge of leasing the project say they already have a list of prospective tenants.

"I'm taking five-dollar bets with anybody who wants to put their name on the line that I'll have this property 100 percent leased before the construction is completed," said Paul Breuer, a senior vice president at Colliers International and one of the brokers.

...

[bvpcvm]

Would anyone who knows something about finance care to comment on what will happen if we default on Thursday? Would I be correct in assuming that planning new projects will grind to a halt? And that anything already underway would generally be completed? Is there any effect on PMLR (due to sequester/shutdown)?

[MarkDaMan]

This thread is about Oregon's economy, please feel free to post political comments in an appropriate thread.

[downtownpdx]

Jaguar Land Rover will open Portland research center with Intel

http://www.oregonlive.com/silicon-fo...l#incart_river



By Mike Rogoway | mrogoway@oregonian.com The Oregonian
on November 20, 2013 at 12:01 PM, updated November 20, 2013 at 1:50 PM

The automaker Jaguar Land Rover said Wednesday that it plans to open a Portland research center next year in collaboration with Intel.

The British company said it will employ 30 people at the facility, including 16 veteran software engineers. Jaguar said it picked Portland because of its proximity to technology hubs in California and Seattle, and because it’s close to Intel’s Oregon operations.

Jaguar didn’t immediately say where, exactly, the new facility will be, but said it will have “a multimedia creative suite, innovation spaces, development laboratory and a six-bay vehicle workshop.”

...

[downtownpdx]

Oregon is No. 1 for attracting new residents, study finds

http://www.oregonlive.com/today/inde...incart_best-of

The Associated Press
Follow on Twitter
on December 25, 2013 at 4:13 PM, updated December 26, 2013 at 3:38 PM

ST. LOUIS — Oregon was the top moving destination for 2013, with 63 percent of interstate moves inbound, according to a new study by the nation's largest household moving company. Oregon had been runner-up for four straight years.

Oregon was followed by the Carolinas — South Carolina had the second-highest percentage of inbound moves, then North Carolina. South Dakota was fourth and the District of Columbia fifth, according to the 37th annual migration study released to The Associated Press by United Van Lines. ...

[downtownpdx]

New report shows Oregon economy is tops this fall

http://www.oregonlive.com/money/inde...l#incart_river

By Molly Young | myoung@oregonian.com The Oregonian
on December 24, 2013 at 10:54 AM, updated December 24, 2013 at 11:15 AM

...Today the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia released a different comparison of the 50 state economies. And Oregon's economic activity is outpacing most.

The Philadelphia Fed uses four indicators -- jobs, unemployment, wages and manufacturing hours -- to track states' growth. The method is similar to the one used by the University of Oregon to create its own set of economic gauges, which follow changes within Oregon.

The Philly indexes are a way to compare Oregon's economic growth with its peers. It tracks economic growth going back more than 30 years.

The new report tracks August-November, a period that coincides with relatively strong hiring in Oregon. The state has added thousands of jobs every month this fall, and the unemployment rate has fallen from 8.1 percent in August to 7.3 percent in November.

The jobs growth shows in the Oregon index. It was up 2 percent this fall, the biggest rise of any state. Idaho and South Carolina tied for the No. 2 slot, with 1.8 percent gains.
...

[bvpcvm]

Originally Posted by downtownpdx

Oregon is No. 1 for attracting new residents, study finds

It's probably even higher, given that United Van Lines would probably miss all the young unemployed college grads who move here in a station wagon.

[2oh1]

And in second place is... IDAHO?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!!?!!!!????

Did. Not. See. That. Coming. Wow.

[downtownpdx]

More tourists put Portland at top of travel plans

http://portlandtribune.com/pt/9-news...f-travel-plans

Created on Thursday, 30 January 2014 06:00. | Written by Steve Law. |

City's culture, food, 'feel' draw record visitors in 2013

Tres Shannon never set out to create a tourist attraction when he opened his quirky doughnut shop in a seedy part of downtown 11 years ago.

Now lines of customers form outside Voodoo Doughnut around the clock, and tourists carrying pink boxes of doughnuts are a common airport sighting. Voodoo’s two funky shops are among Portland attractions that lured a record number of tourists here last year — shattering prior levels.

The record number of tourists in Portland are all the more impressive considering 2013 was a lukewarm year for conventions here, and the local economy continued its slow-motion recovery act. All those tourists helped make downtown feel more vibrant, and pump more money into the economy.

“No question about it, it was a gangbuster year,” says David Schargel, founder of Portland Walking Tours. His business was up 20 percent, enabling him to operate tours year-round for the first time.

Industry experts say the best gauge of tourism comes from hotel business in the central city, where most visitors stay. Proprietary hotel industry data compiled by Smith Travel Research shows Portland’s central city broke records in 2013 for number of overnight guests, occupancy level, average room prices and total rental income.

“It will be the highest occupancy we’ve seen in the central city since 1999,” when such data was first made available, says Brian McCartin, Travel Portland executive vice president for convention and tourism sales.

...

[bvpcvm]

Not sure if this should go here or somewhere else...

New construction demands exceeding city staff

In a sign of how the economy is recovering, the City Council will considering adding 18 Full Time Equivalency (FTE) positions to the Bureau of Development Services on Wednesday.

BDS issues building permits and conducts inspections of buildings under construction, among other things. Its budget is supporting by permit fees. When new construction projects dropped during the Great Recession, the council cut the staff at BDS by over half.

But the council has been adding staff back as the economy has improved and construction activity has picked up in recent years. It approved 13.0 FTE positions in the 2011 fiscal year, 26.6 FTE positions in FY 2012, and 29.5 FTE is the current fiscal year.

btw, a quick look at google maps suggests that the photo above was taken at Burlington and Edison

[Derek]

Originally Posted by downtownpdx

Jaguar Land Rover will open Portland research center with Intel

http://www.oregonlive.com/silicon-fo...l#incart_river



By Mike Rogoway | mrogoway@oregonian.com The Oregonian
on November 20, 2013 at 12:01 PM, updated November 20, 2013 at 1:50 PM

Any more info on this? I assume it would be located somewhere in/around Hillsboro.

[downtownpdx]

How does Portland's job growth stack up? Better than Seattle's

http://www.oregonlive.com/money/inde...l#incart_river

Print Molly Young | myoung@oregonian.com By Molly Young | myoung@oregonian.com
Email the author | Follow on Twitter
on June 03, 2014 at 5:03 PM, updated June 03, 2014 at 5:09 PM

Portland is adding jobs faster than Seattle, San Francisco and the nation as a whole.

The metro area job base has grown 2.8 percent since April 2013 -- outpacing much of the West Coast, according to a monthly economic update from the Oregon Employment Department.

Researchers there say job growth in Portland is well ahead of the national average of 1.7 percent.

...

[downtownpdx]

EBay goes all-in in Portland, makes room for additional 200 employees

http://www.bizjournals.com/portland/...s-to-hire.html

Malia Spencer
Staff Reporter-
Portland Business Journal
Email | Twitter

EBay has been quietly growing in Portland since 2010 when it purchased mobile development company Critical Path Software. The Silicon Valley stalwart is now upping the ante, with aggressive growth plans that could see its downtown office balloon to 400 employees.

...

[maccoinnich]

Tech companies remake the Portland skyline -- with their logos (photo gallery)



By Mike Rogoway | mrogoway@oregonian.com

Few new buildings are going up in downtown Portland, but the city's young tech companies are changing the skyline anyway.

Smarsh and Puppet Labs, both in the process of moving to larger downtown offices, plan to put their logos atop the buildings they will occupy, according to filings with the Bureau of Development Services.

Smarsh's lettering will be four-feet high on the Pacific Building. Puppet Labs plans five-foot letters on Block 300.

...continues at the Oregonian.

[maccoinnich]

Aruba Networks, latest Silicon Valley company to establish Portland outpost, expects to hire dozens in coming months

By Mike Rogoway | mrogoway@oregonian.com



Silicon Valley business networking company Aruba Networks plans to hire dozens of people in the coming months to establish a big new Portland outpost, the latest in a string of California tech businesses to establish large outposts in the city.

Aruba said it is looking for a large downtown location that could accommodate 60 to 100 employees by early next year, taking advantage of the city's maturing tech ecosystem to fill sales, marketing, training, information technology and human resources jobs. More jobs could come later, according to the company.

Portland won out over a half-dozen other locations in the western U.S., aided by hundreds of thousands of dollars in state subsidies, comparatively low operating costs, abundant downtown real estate, and a pool of potential employees that meshed with Aruba's needs.

...continues at the Oregonian.

[downtownpdx]

Very nice, another tech company lands DT -- how much more activity will it take for another tower to rise? I'd love to see something happen in the SW Stark/Oak/2nd/3rd area, some activity is much-needed around there not to mention it's a perfect spot to give Big Pink some company in the skyline. That failed 3rd/Oak PDC block would be perfect.

[davehogan]

Gerding-Edlen selling $500 million apartment portfolio

Real Estate Alert reports Gerding Edlen has hired CBRE to market a 788-unit apartment portfolio that includes projects in prime locations in Boston, Seattle, San Francisco and the Redondo Beach area of Los Angeles.
The industry newsletter projects the portfolio will command bids of about $500 million or an eye-popping $635,000 per unit.

I wonder what they plan to use that kind of hot cash infusion for?

[Pavlov's Dog]

Originally Posted by davehogan

Gerding-Edlen selling $500 million apartment portfolio

Real Estate Alert reports Gerding Edlen has hired CBRE to market a 788-unit apartment portfolio that includes projects in prime locations in Boston, Seattle, San Francisco and the Redondo Beach area of Los Angeles.
The industry newsletter projects the portfolio will command bids of about $500 million or an eye-popping $635,000 per unit.

I wonder what they plan to use that kind of hot cash infusion for?

With China teetering on the brink of their real estate bubble bursting, which will bring the rest of the world into recession, they might just want to realize some gains and get some cash on hand to position themselves for cheap acquisitions when the market bottoms out or to stay solvent through bad times.

[maccoinnich]

Very interesting.

State report shows Portland’s economic surge outpacing Washington County

Posted by Michael Andersen (News Editor)



Residential and office space is running short in Portland for a reason: the central city, not its more auto-oriented suburbs, has been leading the region’s charge out of the recession.

On one measure after another — job growth, median incomes for full-time workers, housing starts, working-age population growth — the City of Portland and Multnomah County have roared past Washington County over the last year as the site of most new economic activity in the metro area.

That’s the overarching finding of a statistical digest prepared by state workforce analyst Christian Kaylor and distributed Tuesday night.

...continues at Bike Portland.